


One Step Closer

by stellargay



Series: The Great Akeshu Songfic Extravaganza [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Lives, Akechi Goro Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, First Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Songfic, akeshu - Freeform, goro finally figures out his emotions, shuake, this is soft as fuck i was melting my own heart writing it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:47:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25230367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellargay/pseuds/stellargay
Summary: I have died every day waiting for youDarling, don't be afraidI have loved you for a thousand yearsI'll love you for a thousand more
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Series: The Great Akeshu Songfic Extravaganza [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1827856
Comments: 1
Kudos: 57





	One Step Closer

Goro Akechi had never considered himself to be "loveable". In his mind, to most people he was expendable. He was a temporary solution to permanent problems. People used him before tossing him away. 

People pitied him. They even worshipped him for a time. Everyone thought they knew Goro Akechi, when all they really knew was the mask. The facade that he put up each and every day, that was the Goro Akechi people loved and put on a pedestal. 

The real Goro Akechi? The one behind the calculated remarks and the carefully crafted smirks?

He was scared and weak. A boy thrust into a cold and unfeeling world unwillingly. A child who grew up unwanted, knowing he was a blight to those around him. A cursed child. An even more cursed teenager. Goro was good for one thing only: mindlessly following the path someone else set for him. Because it was only then that he could focus his pain and channel it into a desperate attempt to have someone want him around. 

Which is why it is completely unfathomable to Goro that Akira Kurusu loved him. Their beginnings were a dance of sorts. A tango of witty remarks and even more witty actions. Goro couldn't begin to comprehend the feelings he had towards Akira. Unable to know what it feels like to love and be loved, Goro assumed these deep, wrenching emotions in his chest were anger, even hate. 

It wasn't until after he fell to his knees following the battle in the engine room of Shido's palace that Goro truly understood the depths of the emotions he had towards Akira. 

Fear replaced anger. Confusion replaced hate. And the burning in his chest? It bloomed into something unfamiliar and warm, something Goro didn't want to let go of. Especially when Akira reached out his hand, his lips forming words Goro had never heard spoken to him before. 

"Come with us. Let me help you. We'll get through this, you and me, together."

He allowed himself to reach into the depths of his soul, reach out for a tangible grasp of those emotions, and used them to make a decision that he thought he would never have to make. 

He sacrificed himself to save Akira, and the rest of the Phantom Thieves. 

Or so he thought. 

When he awoke in his bed, in his tiny apartment in Musashino, overlooking Inokashira Park, Goro thought that maybe all of the agony and terror he'd felt were just a dream. It wasn't until he got up to take a shower and looked at himself in the mirror, a raised, round white scar over his heart, that he truly realized what this was. 

A second chance. At life. At a future. At love. 

Goro Akechi had never run to the Kichijoji station faster in his life. 

The train ride to Yongen-Jaya was agonizing. He had no idea what to do with himself, or his hands, or his feet. Sitting down, Goro pressed his feet into the steel floor of the train, as if willing it to go faster. As the train bumped and jostled its way toward the smaller suburbs of Tokyo, a thousand words tumbled over themselves in his head. A thousand things he wanted to say. A thousand things he was terrified to say. 

After all, how can you love if you're afraid to fall? 

The second the train doors opened, Goro shoved people aside to get through the turnstiles, feet pounding the pavement as he ran down the narrow alleyways and backstreets of quaint Yongen-Jaya. His feet brought him to the door of a little cafe, a hole in the wall, a hidden treasure. 

Cafe Leblanc. 

Taking a deep breath to try to calm his racing heart, his trembling hands, Goro Akechi reaches for the doorknob and tugs. 

******

Akira Kurusu is wrist-deep in a sink full of suds and dishes when the bell over the front door of Cafe Leblanc jingles. He pulls his hands from the water and wipes them on his apron. Sojiro had stepped out to purchase more groceries for the next day's business, so Akira was assigned to watch the store in his absense. 

When he turns around, his entire chest goes cold. 

Goro Akechi, the boy he loves, the boy he thought he would never see again, is standing in the threshold, self-consciously tugging at his wrist cuffs before letting the door shut behind him. 

Their eyes meet, and Akira can't help but let his mouth drop open. It isn't possible, is it? Surely what he is seeing is just a product of having cried so often that his vision is playing tricks on him. Surely this is a dream. A hallucination. 

Silence fills the space between them, maroon eyes meeting slate, and as they look at each other, Akira is blown away by one thing, and one thing alone. 

Goro is beautiful. 

His cheeks are flushed with cold and exertion. His hair is windblown, and his lips are chapped from the cold January air outside. His eyes are wide, with an emotion in them that Akira can only bear to hope as to their meaning. 

Akira woodenly steps out from behind the counter, feet on autopilot, and tries to speak. But he can't find the words. He can only hope that Goro can interpret his silence from the look on his face. 

After all, Goro is only standing there in his imagination right now, correct? A product of Akira's deepest longings, his one life's regret. He never got a chance to tell Akechi how he really felt about him, and it has haunted him since that night in Shido's palace. Goro died without knowing how truly loved and cherished he was, how special he is in Akira's heart. 

The silence has grown deafening, before Goro clears his throat and opens his mouth. But instead of words being spoken into the air, his eyes start to shimmer in the cozy cafe lighting, and to Akira's shock, tears start to roll down his cheeks. 

Akira has crossed the expanse of the room before he even comprehends it, and Goro is in his arms, sobbing as he stutters incoherently into Akira's shoulder.  
Akira's chest is warm, almost bubbling over, and he tucks Goro into his embrace, wanting nothing more than to take every tear Goro is shedding and replace them with smiles, laughs, kisses. 

Goro has stopped speaking, and continues to cry softly into Akira's shoulder, before Akira pulls away just enough to look up into Goro's eyes. The emotions he sees in them causes the warmth in his chest to overflow, and he smiles around his own stifled sob before cupping Goro's wet face in his hands and gently wiping the salty tears from his cheeks. 

He opens his mouth, a thousand things he wants to say, a thousand things he wants to do, but only three words spill out into the air between them. 

"I love you." 

Goro's face crumples, and Akira takes him in his arms again, fingers carding through Goro's hair as he wraps the brunette into his chest. He wants nothing more than to shield him from the world outside, where it can never touch or hurt Goro ever again. 

It's a miracle that Goro is here, warm and tangible, in Akira's arms, and Akira is overwhelmed again at this fact. He has to keep checking subtly to make sure this is real. Yes, Goro's hair is soft against his cheek. Yes, Goro's tears are soaking a circle into Akira's shirt. Yes, Goro's smell, a mixture of sweat and shampoo, is flooding his nose and warming his chest like a bubbling pot of coffee. 

A thousand words run through his mind. 

"I'll never let anything take you away from me again." 

A thousand words he hasn't said. 

"I have already loved you for a long time. So please, let me love you forever." 

Goro pulls away to look down into Akira's face, their eyes meeting before Akira cups Goro's cheeks in both hands and draws him into a warm, lingering kiss. Akira's first. And perhaps even Goro's first. The kiss is warm and slow, lingering and gentle. Akira takes his time noticing the little details. Goro's lips puffing warm against his, the way their lips mold together, the way their heads tilt at just the right angle at just the right time. Their hearts and souls in tandem, the way they have always been. 

Goro Akechi was born unloved and unwanted. He died not knowing that for the first time in his life, he was adored and cherished. And now, with a second chance, he wants to waste no time in drowning in the unfamiliar but incredible feeling of being loved. It's intoxicating. It's addicting. 

And now, he has the time he thought he'd never get. His very first "together", his very first "forever". Goro can hardly wait.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this completely on a whim because a thousand years came on my spotify shuffle and i legit started bawling thinking of goro and akira with this song. im still rusty at writing but hopefully i'm getting my groove back haha so i sincerely hope you like it!


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